All The Dogs Lying Down

Some of Johnny's lyrics are a bit obscure, that's for sure. Here are the correct lyrics to "All The Dogs Are Lying Down," as gleaned from his handwritten notes in the LP.

I saw prayers being made with plastic rosaries
Carpets laid, no thought for furniture...

All the dogs are lying down
All the dogs are lying...
All the dogs are lying down
All the dogs are lying...

As I crept wayward cracking bones
The steeple rose, the way unknown.
The steeple jarred I set me down
And listened to the furnished ground.

"She saith soft things," said one who lay -
I turned to see the one turn grey!
An ash-burnt brim with naught he wept
But to the ground my ear had bent.

"Say softer things than e'er," saith I
The while my horse had run a mile
And lying in the black I wept -
For ne'er a lad so wayward crept.

Listening hard I felt too young -
The waywards talk with older tongues...

SCREWS ON!
SCREWS UP!
LEFT DOWN!
LIP OUT!
Burned by day!
Marooned by night!
Lost in a battle and found in a fight
Creep off ash-stained
Jump off, six lanes
One left and one gone!
None left and I'm gone!
I'm gone! I'm gone! I'm gone!

I saw prayers being made with plastic rosaries
Carpets laid, no thought for furniture

All the dogs are lying down
All the dogs are lying...
All the dogs are lying down
All the dogs are lying...

This just might be my favorite of his. The pictures he paints and the emotions he inspires are second to none. I think this song is about the passing of things, and of trying to regain them. We find ourselves in an era of tawdry, of apathy. Life is no longer important, no longer meaningful, no longer worth the effort. We might as well give up, pass away, lie down. The singer, however, grasps desperately at the ghosts of the past. It seems he has stumbled into a graveyard, and ear to the ground, overhears (or, at least, imagines) the stories and lives of those who came before. He is filled with sadness for having not been a part of it, and exhilarating freedom for having glimpsed what has been and could be. But it is not to last, for all things must pass away.

There's a short story in the LP about discovering an old desolate gypsy caravan, which, I think, explores similar themes. Johnny writes, "This place...filled me with both hope and a deep sadness. The sadness came from the feeling of not being a part of the civilization we had stumbled upon. From missing it... This was a place where the past sat for us, waiting to be unearthed, so we could discover the customs of old. I felt like the carefully constructed chamber in which I lived had just been blown away leaving me as a free-floating entity in space, seeing all history at the same time." But by the end of the story, the narrator has returned to the pervasive monotony of real life, "feeling stuck in [his] young body."

Sorry for writing an Epic. Mr. Flynn's work, like any poet's, requires much thought and examination. I'm still working through it...

This song is one of Johnny Flynn's best and my personal favorite. The words are pure poetry. He always writes with such eloquence. And the words he chooses - saith, e'er, nought, ne'er. He uses them with such ease to create a beautiful sound.

i thought it was about waking up to things.. all the dogs are lying down.. and realising that religion wasn't as first thought and a losing of a sense of belonging to a place or people.. - I saw prayers being made with plastic rosaries Carpets laid, no thought for furniture. probably wrong.. usually am. good day! :)